Cursed
by Pinkchick
Summary: A lonely man revisits his home, while bringing back memories of the people he had loved. He ponders whether his life and his mutation is a gift or a curse. Please R&R it is appreciated greatly! Rated T for death and a little bit of violence.


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Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing. Turns out pockets See, I told you. But, just for old time's sake: they belong to Marvel, Kid's WB, and most importantly, to Stan Lee. I am making no money off of this, blah, blah, blah… eh, you get the point, right? Good.

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Author's Note: I swear I feel like I haven't written a story in ages, in which I haven't really. This idea just came to me as I was listening to this really sad song and so it kinda got me into the depressed mode. And badda bing, badda boom, this is what the product was. I want to give a shout out to **sweet-destiny3** for being so positive about this story and for letting me have writer's block with her beforehand. You are truly one of a kind! And now I please beg you all as an author and fellow reader to please review… they truly mean a lot and you'll make my day… so out of the kindness of your hearts, please **Read, _Review_, and ENJOY!**

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Cursed

By: Pinkchick

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It was quiet. Too quiet. Only the metal clunking of boots could be heard reverberating across the dimly lit foyer. What was left of it at least. The sun was setting behind the horizon, only rising on the dawn of a new day. A dawn that many people would never witness. There was an eerie mist spreading across the vast grounds that had been so full of life.

So full of youth.

Happiness.

Hope.

But, all of that was gone now. Replaced with a dark shadow. A dark shadow that hovered over his heart. One that would never go away.

The boots roamed the empty halls of memories and of people that had meant something. Now, nothing meant anything anymore. The rooms he stepped in were no longer filled with laughter, as they should have been. He only walked into hall after hall with ghostly shadows and skeletons stalking him. Nothing would ever be the same. Nothing.

Maybe it was his fault. He had always thought himself to be invincible, but when everyone had needed him the most, he hadn't been there. He had been helpless… unable to save anyone. Fearless and heartless is what someone had called him once. But the truth was, he feared for the lives of the only people that had stolen his heart. Now, it was very cold… and he was fearless, heartless, and dead. He had nothing to fear anymore. Everyone and everything he had always believed in and fought for was gone.

His soul was tattered, dead, and buried along with those faces he would never again see. The faces that brought a smile to his face even in the worst of times. The faces that had died before him. Before his very eyes. The faces that would haunt his memories until the day he died.

It wasn't fair.

It wasn't fair at all. He was the man that would live and yet the ones who had died had had so much to live for. Why was he still alive? Why was he still standing here as though nothing had happened, while they were all buried, never again to see the sun rise to a new day? Their faces flashed in front of his eyes. Happy, hopeful. The way they would always remain in his memory.

It wasn't fair.

He exhaled deeply as he continued into each of the rooms and stopped in the doorway of what used to be the living area. Books, magazines, and other things lay sprawled everywhere. He turned around, almost expecting them all to run back into the room and resume what they had been doing. As though life would go on. And it would. It just wouldn't be the same. There was just so much grief… and he had to carry the burden of it all.

No one would walk up behind him and pat him on the back, telling him that it would all be okay. Because he knew that it would be a lie. He couldn't live a lie. He had opened his heart and just when he thought that everything would be ok, their lives had all ended. He was now walking the earth as a living corpse.

No, life would never be the same. Life wasn't fair enough to just leave well enough alone. Life wouldn't let him die. Life wouldn't give him peace.

_"Your mutation is a gift," _Professor Xavier had always said.

He laughed bitterly at the statement his friend and colleague had always repeated. His mutation wasn't a gift. It was a curse… a curse upon him and everyone who came in contact with him. Everyone he let get too close to.

The deaths of the ones he loved were his fault. He had always warned himself to never let anyone get close, or vice versa. Nothing good would come of that. And nothing ever did. It was useless to dwell on what he could've done. The past was gone. Gone and dead. He had to look forward to a future. A future that held absolutely nothing for him. A future that was pointless without everyone that had lived in the large and now empty house.

They had fought a battle. And they had lost.

They had all believed in Xavier's dream so much that it had brought them to their dooms. Even Magneto hadn't stood a chance. Magneto had been a man of power - trying to banish the world of humans - and underestimated the power that the inferior race could have when felt threatened. Humans and mutants could never coexist peacefully, unless, of course, they were stranded on a reality show, lost on some island and forced to cooperate with each other.

He laughed a hollow laugh.

They had fought a losing battle from the beginning. The one year of war that had taken place had been a burden on everyone's shoulders. Within months, they were battling for their lives and the chance to show the world that mutants weren't a threat. They wanted a chance to show that they were just trying to live.

Live. That's all they had been trying to do. But, unfortunately, life always worked against them and in this case, so had the government. He had never seen so many lives taken so quickly, without mercy. Wiped out as though they were never really there. The younger students had been taken first. Some dead, some captured. He didn't know whether those that had been captured were still alive, or if the monsters that took them were using them for a completely different reason.

They had showed no mercy. And in retaliation, he had shown none as well. He had killed mercilessly and in indignation. For all the lives he had taken, he felt no remorse. Maybe some people were right. He was heartless. But the lives of those first students had to have been avenged. And they were. Maybe it was wrong to not feel anything towards the live he had so callously taken, but he didn't care. They had killed the people he had let into his life, just like that. In a blink of an eye, everything had shattered. Life so young should never have been taken that way. Why couldn't they just let them live? Why?

But, life was a curse. Life wasn't fair. He was a curse. A curse planted upon this earth. He suffered the worst thing that anyone could possibly suffer: outliving his loved ones.

Yes, he had loved. There was a time before Professor Xavier had found him and helped him when he had vowed himself never to love anyone ever again. But, yes, he had loved. And loved fiercely. He had loved all of them, loved them as though they were his. But, most importantly, he had given his heart to a woman. A woman whose face and stature had been the only thing that had ever calmed him. Her name had been Ororo Munroe.

Ororo was gone now, like the rest of them. Only a shadow of a memory was left of what was once the beautiful and enchanting woman he had let steal his heart those many years ago. If he closed his eyes, he could still see her, hear her, feel her, and taste her. He inhaled. She had always smelled of nature, her skin the color of the wonderful soil she had loved so much when tending he garden. Ororo's love of all kind showed him that there was a place in his heart for anything and anyone. He had only to open it, and he had. She had been the first one in.

But, in the war, she hadn't stood a chance.

The machines kept raining down upon her, mimicking her abilities. In the end, there was only so much she could stand. Somehow a piece of the machine's arm had fallen off and landed right on top of her, sending her spiraling downwards from the sky. He closed his eyes against the horrible memory of that day. Ororo had looked up at him and smiled for the last time. He reached down and kissed her lips before her eyes had glazed over and she had died. Right there, on the dead soil. The same soil she had helped to replenish. The soil that the war had destroyed. The war that had taken her from him.

_"'Ro," he called, slicing through whatever was in front of him to get to her. "Stay back! Get down and stay back…" his voice rang through the thick air. "'ROOOOOOOOO!"_

He had been too late. Too late to save her.

_The machine's arm seemed to fall through the air in slow motion as it hit Storm abruptly, sending her spiraling towards the soil of the earth. He ran to her as quickly as humanly possible. She had to be okay, she just had to be. Storm's body hit the ground with a very excruciating thud and he winced. He got there just as she collapsed. Her eyes were looking up at the dark sky, her eyelids flickering open and shut too many times for him to count. He took her in his arms and prayed that she was alright. He didn't know what he would do if… He just knew that she had to be alright. She was strong and he knew that. Storm's body shook violently and she immediately started coughing up blood._

Storm looked up at the man holding her, his head buried in her chest. She moved her hand up to touch his face. "Promise me, Logan."

"Don't talk like that, 'Ro," Logan begged. "Yer gonna be fine, you understand me? We'll get you help, ok." Logan looked down and into her piercing blue eyes, now clouded over. She held his gaze for a moment before she started coughing again. Logan reluctantly looked down at her body and his breath hitched. There was a metal arm piece embedded deep within her abdomen.

Storm heaved for breath and then tried again, taking Logan's face in her hand. "Promise me, Logan. Promise me that you'll fight on. You'll live. You'll keep the dream."

"I can't do that without you, 'Ro," Logan whispered into her ear. "Don't start talkin' like that."

There was silence. Logan looked at Storm, cradling her, thinking she'd already gone. A labored gasp assured him that she was still fighting. Fighting to tell him something. A lonely tear trickled down her face as she coughed again. This time, more violently.

"Promise me, Logan," Storm whispered, barely audible at all. "Promise me."

"I can't," Logan breathed.

"Please…"

"No, I can't. I can't do it alone."

"You'll never be alone, Logan," Storm promised. "Please, promise me. Please…"

"I promise, 'Ro. I promise."

Storm smiled up at him, her eyes bright. She gasped for air again, then her eyes flickered and closed. There was silence. Logan released a pained cry and lowered his head so that his lips could brush hers. "Don't go, 'Ro. C'mon, don't leave, please," Logan pleaded to her still form. His eyes closed as he sank further to the ground and cried into her hair. He held her lifeless form closer to him and let his grief take him. That's when the rain started to fall…

He opened his eyes. They were void of emotion whatsoever. Logan had cried his last tears that day and he swore he'd never cry again. All the people left to cry over were now gone. He was an empty shell. There was no more purpose in his life. Nothing to live for. He had outlived them all. No one remained, and that was a curse all in itself.

Logan closed his eyes again as a cold breeze swept past him. It ruffled his hair as the wind wrapped its way around him and then breezed through. There was an amused chuckle and a girlish giggle coming from somewhere behind him. He turned around and a soft smile played on his lips at the sight. The scene took place in a fog.

There were five students lounging around the room, but only two of them were causing a raucous. The elder boy with a tail and blue fur was teleporting in and out of a brown haired girl's squealing grip. She kept phasing through the furniture trying to catch whatever the boy had stolen. The rest of the students were rolling their eyes at the both of them for it hadn't been anything unusual.

_"Kurt, like, give it back!" Kitty Pryde shouted._

"You'll never catch me, Keety," Kurt Wagner practically sang gleefully.

She phased through another couch and right through _Scott Summers, whose long legs were stretched out in front of him. He rolled his eyes behind his ruby quartz glasses and then let out a sigh._

_"Can't you two take this outside?" Scott asked. "I mean... some of us are trying to finish homework."_

"Hey, like, don't look at me." Kitty stopped running for a moment, but still eyed Kurt from across the room. "I didn't ask for Kurt to, like, take all my supplies. I have homework to finish too!"

Jean Grey shook her red head and looked at Scott sitting next to her. He just shrugged his shoulders, smiled, and turned back to writing something in his notebook. She sat up and looked at Kurt and Kitty who had resumed their power chase across the room.

"Look, Logan's gonna be in here any minute and as soon as he finds out that you guys haven't been finishing up, not to mention that you've trashed the room -" They all looked around the room. Through Kitty's phasing and Kurt's teleporting they had managed to rearrange the furniture and completely bustle it up. "- he'll give us all another Danger Room session."

There was a collective groan across the room.

Logan's smile reached his eyes this time. Oh, the time spent in the Danger Room. He knew they always hated it. But, the training had paid off eventually. They had fought and fought hard. And for that, he was proud.

"Oh, eet's ok, Jean," Kurt supplied, his teleporting making a bamf _sound, leaving behind him a trail of brimstone and sulfuric smoke. "Nothing vill happen if ve don't get caught." He smiled as though that were a definite comfort to everyone._

Rogue, who had been relatively silent, rolled her eyes against their own will and finally decided to say something. Her bluntness always seeped through. She lowered her book and eyed Kurt and Kitty. "Tha only reason blue boy here even took yo' supplies is because he was bored. Now, some _of us are trahyin' ta read, and Ah don't know 'bout you, but Ah'm actually busy trahyin' ta have a lahfe."_

"Hey!" Kurt protested, stopping in front of his adopted sister, his blue skin contrasting to her pale one. "I have a life!" Rogue let out a grunt and lifted her book back up to her face, deliberately ignoring Kurt.

Kitty chose that exact time to come up behind him and snatch back her things. She did a victory dance over to her chair and stuck out her tongue at her usual partner in crime. Kurt groaned and sat down next to Rogue, picking his things back up in order to study.

There was finally some peace and quiet. For awhile anyway. A pillow was purposefully flying through the air until it landed and hit Scott squarely in the head. His head snapped up and he looked around the room. If the room had been quiet before, there was dead silence now. No one had ever thrown a pillow at their fearless leader. He eyed the room again until his eyes landed on Kurt.

Kurt held up his hands in defense. "Vat are you looking at me for?"

Next to Scott, Jean stifled a laugh as Kurt's face broke out into a huge grin. Scott rounded on her. "You thought that was funny?" She smiled, shrugged her shoulders, much as he had done earlier, and turned back to her book, until another pillow came soaring her way and plunked her right in the side. She looked up and glared at Kurt. He was no longer playing innocent and when he started to laugh, Jean took her shot and aimed the pillow right back at him.

"Pillow fight!" Kitty squealed delightfully. Rogue put down her book, grabbed the next one and a mass attack of pillows were tossed back and forth throughout the room, until half of them were on the floor. Another pillow sailed across the room, intended for Kitty when it was sliced up by three very menacing looking claws. They all stopped, gulped, and turned to look at the intruder.

"What the hell _do ya think yer doin'?" shouted the gruff voice before he stepped into the room._

The fog cleared and he was once again left standing in the middle of the room, alone. Logan remembered that day like it had happened yesterday. He bit back a laugh. They had destroyed the room that day and instead of Danger Room sessions, there was something much worse. Cleaning. And that's what they had done. They had cleaned the room until it was completely spotless. No one had suspected anything by the time the professor and Storm had gotten home. They had all been so young. Unfortunately, they would always remain that way.

Those five were the hardest working and the rocks that had held the X-men together until the end. The first five students would always hold a special place in Logan's heart, including Evan, Storm's nephew, who had found his home with the Marauders eventually. Still, he would always remain family. And that's what he had been until the end. They were ultimately the last six surviving of all the students and their deaths had been horrible. But, they had stuck it out and proved to surpass all of Logan, Professor Xavier, and Storm's expectations.

However, they had been far too young to have to witness and even fight in a war, but they had. And they had fought well. Logan closed his eyes once more as memories of the wretched day came flooding back to him. It was the same day Storm had died. There were bodies everywhere. Magneto's Brotherhood and even the Acolytes had all fallen at the hands of one mad man: Bolivar Trask. He had created an anti-mutant machine of the sorts and unleashed them on the mutants. He had had no mercy or emotions. He called his machines Sentinels.

Logan's jaw quivered at the mere thought of the man. Trask had been a power-hungry beast who hadn't cared for anyone but himself. Logan spit at his memory. He remembered Trask's wide eyes as he took his last breath before he had died. Logan shook his head. No one killed Logan's family and got away with it. To him, it was the sweetest revenge, and it had taken some of the burden from his shoulders, but the pain still remained as strong as ever.

Kitty and Kurt's laughter echoed through his ears. It was so happy and full of joy. No longer would their innocent faces laugh again.

She and Kurt had been tortured and then slaughtered. He could still hear their cries and screams in his nightmares. The men working for Trask had done it right in front of the X-men. Flanking neck bolts to hold them from using their powers, they tortured them until Kurt and Kitty could scream no longer. Their bodies had looked as though they had been wilting flowers. The henchmen didn't even think twice about it before they had sliced both of their necks. Logan's jaw locked as his mind was filled with hatred to whomever those men had been. He wished them utter damnation for all they had done. The immoral, scum sucking bastards.

Rogue's eyes still haunted him. She had lain there, slain, her eyes wide open against the sky she could no longer see. Trask's men had used her powers against her. Somehow they had used her to absorb everyone around her. Logan didn't know how they had done it, but they had studied each and every one of them. Rogue had been trying to fight it off, but her body wouldn't restrain any of the powers or memories that she had absorbed. Then, and only then, had her powers and memories - along with everyone else's - overwhelmed her, destroying her in the end. Her mutation would never haunt her from now on. Her curse was gone and she had been buried like everyone else. A lost child of the earth.

Jean's shrill pleas of help resounded in his mind. She and Scott had been working as a team, like they always had been. She was his offense and he was her defense. But, they had been cornered. The Sentinel had gotten the better of them. Jean had screamed for Scott to duck before he could get hit. But, it had been too late. Scott got the full blast of the explosion and died instantly from a deep wound in his chest. His visor lay broken across the front lawn and his body strewn and tattered. It had been a horrifying sight to witness. But, not as horrible as it was for Jean to see it happen.

She had screamed bloody murder. Jean had run to him, but the Sentinel hadn't been ready to give up until it had taken out everyone. There had been a series of bullets that had been fired. Jean had tried to block them with her shields, but that hadn't been her main goal. She was shot too many times to count and her body hit that of Scott's as she landed on the ground. There had been blood everywhere. It had been well suited at least…. They had died in each other's arms.

Logan shook his head, his eyes suspiciously bright. He had been fighting along with them, but was ultimately too helpless to stop it. The other Sentinels had taken up too much of his time and energy. He hadn't even been able to reach them. They had even killed Evan through poisoning gas in the sewers where the Marauders had once dwelled. Logan started to shake with anger. Even the professor had been killed, right there in his office. A bullet to the head was all it had taken. One second he was there, in all his glory, and in an instant he had gone. Gone away to a better place.

So Logan was now alone. Dwelling amongst the mansion that had held so many memories, both happy and sad. He was the last one standing. The war had been fought and yes, they had all lost. But, what was lost to Logan hadn't been the war. It was the brave people that had fought in it. They had won a victory to themselves. Their suffering was now over and no one would trouble them anymore. Logan was now a soulless man wandering, not knowing where to look. Seeking something that he could never find. Everything had been taken from him. His home, his family, and his life. There was nothing left here. Nothing but an empty house, ghostly memories, and a haunting that played in his mind over and over again.

Logan had outlived them. He had done what he had feared most. He had lived for far too long, let down so many people, fought, loved, and lost. And yet, he was still here. He was living his fear. But, the worst thing about it all was not that his fear had come true… but that he had lived it. It wasn't a gift at all. His heart ached and there was nothing he could do about it. He was now a heartless, careless, empty body, wandering the earth without a purpose. He lived through everything. Death was everywhere and he hoped everyday that it would take him and rid him of his grief, his sins, and his emptiness. Life had taken his family because of differences no would overlook. Maybe he would live to see Xavier's dream through - just maybe.

Logan walked the length of the mansion a few more times completely lost within himself. The sun was gone now and would only awaken at the dawn of a new day. A day the ones he loved would never see. A light that even he - still living - would never feel or see. It wasn't because he couldn't… but because he didn't want to. It hurt too much. Life was no longer a gift and neither was his mutation. He had lived too long and seen too much. Seen too many lives go unfinished, seen the lives of others go on without even a glance behind them. He'd seen people kill for no reason, and had seen those unfinished lives suffer because of it, then shrivel and die. Logan soaked up the breeze that blew past him. There was Storm. And if he felt hard enough, he could feel the wind touch him like she had, whisper promises into his ear like she had, and brush his lips like she had done so many times. Logan closed his eyes and took it all in.

Logan would be with her. Maybe not in this life or the next, but one day all that they had fought so hard for and died for would become reality and then, and only then, would he finally be able to join them all in a peaceful eternity. Until that time, he had to accept the fact that his mutation was all he had left. Logan's fingers lingered on his lips for a little while before he brushed them into the air. He bid them all a goodbye, left them a promise, and hopped onto his motorcycle to ride off into the lifeless day that awaited him.

_"Your mutation is a gift," _Professor Xavier had once said. _"Embrace it and live."_

But, life wasn't fair and his mutation was a curse.

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A/N: Liked it, hated it? Don't forget to leave a review… the little button down there is just waiting for you to click it, I know it's anxious. So, please for the love of all that is fan fiction, please review… I'll be waiting because your opinions matter! Thanks!


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